Loud pipes anger St. Johns residents

Loud pipes are once again in the headlines, with CBC reporting on a public meeting in St Johns, Newfoundland, with locals gathering to vent their anger.

The meeting was hosted at city hall by a city councillor in conjunction with Parks Canada and the local police, CBC reports. The meeting was specifically aimed at noisy motorcycles in the Signal Hill neighbourhood, one of the best-known areas of Newfoundland’s capital city.

The complaints were the same we always hear in these cases: residents are fed up with having their peace and quiet disturbed. Several complained they or their children were losing sleep due to loud bikes.

The solution the residents proposed, as always, was a police crackdown. And as usual in these cases, the local police said their hands were tied due to government legislation. It’s the same old story we see every summer in major cities across Canada. The loud pipes crowd will pipe up and say their exhausts keep danger at bay, and the locals who don’t like the decibel will cry for government intervention. Who’s going too prevail? Will it matter when electric bikes take over?

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10 thoughts on “Loud pipes anger St. Johns residents”

Apologies to the readers: This was meant as a response to someone named OPisanidiot, but my browser did something weird. No disrespect to the other people contributing who have something useful to say instead of flaming troll noise.

Owned? I think not. Did you read the article I linked to, or are you truly that pig-ignorant?

Have you ever sat down with a cop (a real one, not some mall cop) and discussed the issues around dealing with biker gangs? I have. That’s why I feel I can actually contribute something useful to the conversation here: Maybe if you had a clue you’d be worth listening to as well.

From the video posted on CBCNL, the motorcyclists deliberately causing a nuisance on Signal Hill a few nights ago were almost entirely Sportbikers … and NOT Cruiser riders with aftermarket exhausts. Packs of squidding sportbikes have been tearing around the St. John’s metro area lately, making a complete nuisance of themselves on public roadways, in imitation of their Ontario counterparts.
These asshats unfortunately give ALL (responsible) motorcyclists a bad name, and should be leaned on heavily by Johnny Law

Most of the traffic there is a stop and go, and if it’s low traffic, roads are still much to small to go at anything more the 80km (speed limit is probably 30 to 50, I don’t remember). These are people who are revving their engine aggressively. For no real gain but noise

One of the problems is that some of the loud pipe crowd are 1% gang members, and cops never mess with them unless they have lots of cops and they know they can put away the gang members for good. Otherwise any cop who messes with a 1%er runs the risk of seeing their house burned down or their family and children beaten up or worse.

We’re far more likely to see blanket motorcycle bans or similar efforts to ruin motorcycling for everyone than any serious effort by the cops to single out the loud clowns.

LoL, heheh… been watching too much American TV again, friend?
Yeah Newfoundland is a real hotbed of one-percenters and desperados, I’m sure.
Interesting that people are not complaining about this – but only about unmuffled exhausts?

All vehicles (motorcycles, cars, trucks, etc) should be subject to the same standards for exhaust noise. This should not be addressed by simply banning all aftermarket exhausts as some aftermarket products can be as quiet as OEM if set up properly. It has to be based on actual measured decibel level.

The Canadian Motorcycle Guide

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